04.05.2015

Bronto up 2.5%

Bronto Skylift has posted a 2.5 percent increase in first quarter revenues and turned last years loss into profit.

Total revenues were $25.1 million, 2.5 percent higher than for the same quarter last year. This was due to higher sales in North America and flat sales in the rest of the world, which when translated into fewer dollars due to the weak Euro – which had a $3.9 million negative impact. Last year’s loss of $800,000 was converted to a profit of $300,000 this year, due mostly to lower SG&A costs.

Order intake during the quarter plummeted falling 57 percent to $22 million, although a good part of this was once again due to exchange factors. The backlog at the end of the quarter was $63 million, compared to $106.4 million last year.

Finland based Bronto reports in dollars, due to its ownership by US based Federal Signal, which reported a more than 10 percent rise in revenues to $221.6 million, while pre-tax profits almost doubled to $23.3 million.

Vertikal Comment

Bronto order intake tends to fluctuate wildly as it tends to book large single orders and then experience a quiet spell while lead times are long, a backlog of over six months is probably a good deal healthier than the 12 months of a year ago.

We understand that the company is also likely to announce some major new European orders at Vertikal Days next week. The company could be on track to achieve a new record in 2015.